12:33 PM EDT, 09/25/2024 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with Microsoft's ( MSFT ) comments in the fifth and sixth paragraphs.)

Alphabet's (GOOG) Google ( GOOG ) unit filed a complaint with the European Commission alleging Microsoft ( MSFT ) is engaged in anti-competitive practices to lock clients into using its cloud platform Azure, Google Cloud said in a blog post Wednesday.

In its complaint, Google ( GOOG ) alleges Microsoft ( MSFT ) is taking advantage of its dominant Windows Server operating system to block competition.

"For years, in the productivity software space, Microsoft ( MSFT ) has locked customers into Teams, even when they preferred other providers. Now, the company is running the same playbook to push companies to Azure," Google Cloud said.

"Microsoft's ( MSFT ) licensing terms restrict European customers from moving their current Microsoft ( MSFT ) workloads to competitors' clouds -- despite there being no technical barriers to doing so -- or impose what Microsoft ( MSFT ) admits is a striking 400% price markup," Google Cloud added.

A Microsoft ( MSFT ) spokesperson told MT Newswires that "Microsoft ( MSFT ) settled amicably similar concerns raised by European cloud providers, even after Google ( GOOG ) hoped they would keep litigating."

"Having failed to persuade European companies, we expect Google ( GOOG ) similarly will fail to persuade the European Commission," the spokesperson added.

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